Hey Don my friend, do you have this many dealers?

Found this a well back Don, was looking for something, saw this pic I had saved and thought of you!

Dan,

I'm nowhere near 4000, doubt I'll ever get them all, but do have 2500+ so far. Times were certainly different back then. Just imagine bragging about HOW MANY dealers you had representing your products instead of trying to consolidate them into a few corporate giants. Thanks for posting that ad, it sure is interesting to see where they were thick and where they were thin. Don

Yes Don, they have butchered out all those mom and pop dealers and went for mega dealerships. But what they say is progress. There is a new customer out there too that needs to be a mega farmer also to compete. Oh well Don those were the good old days.

Some saw those days, most never will.

Dan I was just talking to a fella about some small town dealers. Back in the 70's there was two dealers in this area that were the No. 1 skidloader selling dealers in the country. Both were in towns with a pop. less that 500. Hard to imagine these days they are long gone with no dealers for about 50 mi. Rod.

You are so right Dan. My question is: Is rural America better off with all this "progress"?

Now Don will not sleep tonight

Hoofer, you got me to chuckle on that one!! Don better take a sleeping pill! lolol

Don,

here's you a couple more if you don't have them already.

Ken Hawes, US 50 East, Bedford, Indiana

Mathews Equipment, Leesville, Indiana

Like has been discussed, both have been gone for quite some time.

Thank you very much for these dealers. There are no longer regularly posted dealer items on Ebay to get names from. And, as you mentioned many of these dealerships were from 50 or more years ago. I did not have these two.

Don

Canton Implement Canton MO Case, Massey and IH trucks He was down to MF when he sold out around 1980.
Earley Implement in Edina MO,did not last long and switched to JD(did not last long there either)

Don, It looks like you have your work cut out for you!
I have to think you're working on a moving target though.
Do you have any idea about decade Case would have topped out with the most numbers?

Brad,

In the federal court case, United States vs. JI Case in 1951, it was stated that Case had just over 4000 dealers in North America. I would guess that was the high-water mark as all manufacturers were trying to take advantage of the machinery boom after WWII-and Case was trying to recover from the 1946 strike... In 1953 Case issued an edict that all dealers would have to have diesel engine servicing tools for the new 500-and a facility that was clean enough to repair diesel components. That was the point of no return for many hardware stores, gas stations, blacksmith shops, car dealerships, feed mills, grain elevators and part time farmer/dealers. Combined with a bad farming economy for much of the 50's, there was a steady decline in dealers (and most manufacturers were going downhill financially as well). In the 60's, Case was in big trouble financially and they lost some good dealers to other brands (it seems mostly Oliver) as well. Case also went on a spree of weeding out low performers and people who had what they considered to be poor facilities, or a poor location, all through the 60's, but especially after Tenneco entered the picture. We lost 7 dealers in NE WI from 1964 to 1970.The closest dealer left to us was 70 miles away. That was just too far for most farmers at that time.


I'm guessing I don't have a lot of small time dealers because they may not have advertised much, if at all, or were in business a very short time. So, no calendars, no thermometers, no jack knives, no pens or pencils on Ebay. My list has dealers from the 40's, 50's 60's and 70's, mostly. In the 30's dealers changed often and most are really hard to find as there was little to no money for advertising. Almost nobody alive remembers many of them. For some strange reason I want to see these people remembered. Don

Thanks for the additions to the list. Have you ever heard of Dawson Bros. Tractor Co. or Knox County Implement in Edina? Those were other names I was given for Edina, MO Case dealers. Don

Thank you for that response. It's amazing to me to listen to the old timers around home here talk about these little itty bitty towns around here all had two or three implement dealers at one time. Case, JD, MM, AC, Oliver and IH. Funny thing is, a lot of farms had an 8N Ford but I never have learned who had a Ford dealership. No idea where they all came from.

To give you some idea of the demand for machinery, a former Case dealer from Maple, WI, way up north near Lake Superior country, told me that they would get a train car load of manure spreaders (10) at a time and they would be sold in 1 day. A train car load of VAC's (7 IIRC) might take 2 days. This was in the late 40's boom in farming. A banker would be there to write notes on the spot for purchasing new machinery. Too bad those good times don't last. Don

So true. County seat of Towner County ND (my home county while growing up) had IH, JD, MM, MH, Case that I remember. There may have been Oliver and AC but those aren't in my memory. (Bob may remember)

So far, in the small town I live in, I've been able to confirm that @ one time, there were Case, IH, Ford, Oliver, Massey-Harris-Ferguson and John Deere dealerships. Someone mentioned a local car dealership may have sold Allis-Chalmers @ some point.

Funny thing is, the Case, Ford, Oliver & M-H-F dealerships were all within a one-mile stretch of US50 on the East side of town!!

Yes where we were in Edinburg, there was Case, IHC, M&M, Allis Chalmers the late 60s it was just Case, and IHC